False Perfection

I wrote this poem in 2017. It was when I knew that I could be kinder to myself and I was experimenting with how to do so. I remember just feeling so constrained and wondering what I was trying to measure up to and why. I like the strain in this poem and the dawning of the realization I was having. I feel like it’s a bit messy and I like it that way. I feel like it’s messy because the idea was so new to me, that there was less of the usual flow that’s in my writing. I invite you to check it out and may it help free you from any prisons of perfection you have been living in. Big hugs!!

False Perfection - a poem

What is the measure of perfection?

I have always strived for perfection without really ever having a true definition of perfection.

Recently I realized that it was some kind of false ideal that I was striving to, one that was unattainable, unrealistic and certainly not defined by me.

I was setting myself up to fail and to hate myself time and time again

As I was wanting to measure myself and my actions against a non-existent

Standard.

I have seen others hate themselves and berate themselves because they

Couldn’t measure up to their undefined standards of perfection.


Let’s rise up dear brothers and sisters.

Let us liberate ourselves from these false pretenses,

These false measures that are not based in any reality,

That are more like prisons that don’t have any walls.

Once you know there are no walls and everything is false

About the ideals we strive for that are not defined by any heart

Spirit or the Universe,

Then the false ideals fall away and

There is then time to get to know the way of the heart

The way that has always been there, waiting for the seeds of truth

To be planted within our hearts, once we step out of the darkness

Of the prison with no walls, into the gardens of our hearts,

Where there is always truth, nothing false and we remember

That everything is here to help us, even false pretenses.

© Bradlee Zrudlo 2022. All Rights Reserved.